Trump drove GOP rep into retirement after 'series of public humiliations': NYT

New York Times reporter Annie Karni writes Rep. Elise Stefanik, (R-N.Y.) was willing to be a team player for President Donald Trump, but that didn’t help her.

“To detractors, Ms. Stefanik’s shoddy treatment by the president amounted to karmic comeuppance for a Republican lawmaker who came to Congress as a Harvard-educated moderate but tacked unapologetically to the MAGA right when it suited her political purposes,” wrote Karni. “They said she personified the opportunistic shape-shifting that gripped her party.”

“My greatest disappointment is Elise Stefanik, who should know better,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) last year. “She went off the deep end.”

“After a series of public humiliations delivered to her by President Trump — his yanking of her nomination to serve as U.N. ambassador; his Oval Office love fest with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, during which the president undercut her; and the coup de grâce of his refusal to endorse her in the Republican primary for governor — Ms. Stefanik on Friday afternoon announced she’d had enough,” Karni said.

Stefanik ended her campaign for New York governor, and she also announced that she would not run for re-election to Congress in 2026.

“Her tumble from grace crystallized the limits of MAGA loyalty and the risks of building a political identity around Mr. Trump, who can turbocharge or torpedo a career — sometimes both,” added Karni. “Once one of the president’s most stalwart defenders, Ms. Stefanik, who referred to herself as ‘ultra MAGA’ and styled herself after Mr. Trump, ultimately found herself undermined by him and politically adrift."

Stefanik heaped favor after favor upon Trump, staying his ally through both unpopular legislation and impeachments. And despite Trump’s neglect and treatment Karni said, “she still never dared to vent frustration or disagreement with the president.”

Perhaps one of his most painful betrayals was his undermining of Stefanik’s plans to paint Mamdani as “the far-left face of the Democratic Party,” having referred to him as a “jihadist.”

“Given all that she had done to remain loyal to the president, Ms. Stefanik figured he would back her,” wrote Karni.

But Trump likes winners, not losers. Mamdani won the New York mayor’s office, and Stefanik’s bid as a Republican contender for a blue office was a long shot.

When asked if he agreed with Stefanik that the mayor-elect was a ‘jihadist,’ Trump said: “No, I don’t. She’s out there campaigning, you know. You say things sometimes in a campaign. … You really have to ask [Stefanik] about that. I met with a man who is a very rational person.”

“Everyone has their limits,” Karni wrote.

Read Karni's New York Times report at this link.